Funerals
by lslines
Summary: It was raining when they held the memorial service. Korso didn't like that. [KorsoCale, postmovie]


Written for xanthos(underscore)samurai over at livejournal, under a challenge from the fic(underscore)on(underscore)demand community.

Blah. 'S not my greatest work yet, but it's the best I can do. I even worked in the optional!Korso/Sam (well, if you want to see it and you squint it's there, I suppose). Enjoy.

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It was still raining when they got around to the memorial service, which was in Korso's mind, a shame. He'd never gone in for all that cloak and dagger stuff when he was alive and that wasn't about to change. It would have been much nicer if they'd waited until the rain had stopped so no moron's could claim "the sky was crying for him" or anything similarly stupid and corny. But the tombstone was really nice, carved from granite, with none of those flowers engraved around the edges or those weird angels or cherubs sitting on the top. And the ceremony itself had been nice, no priests or mentions of any sort of gods… 

He leant against the edge of a tree, and gazed at the sky, droplets of water passing through him to darken the rough surface of the bark as the last few people who had been present wandered slowly away down the hill. All who remained in the little clearing aside from himself were Cale and Akima, who seemed to be caught up in an argument. He wandered slowly towards them, hoping to catch the end of the conversation, but Akima turned on her heel and rushed off down the hill to catch up with Gune and Stith. That left Cale alone, who with a sigh, ran his hand through his hair- successfully messing it up- and stuck his hands in his pockets before moving to sit against the edge of the tombstone.

Korso sighed also and drifted across the grass to sit on the top of the smooth stone, dangling his legs either side of Cale's shoulders.

"What's up with her?" Korso jerked his head towards the retreating form of Akima, but looked down at Cale again, startled. The soft sound of sobs floated delicately on the air.

"Kid? What's up?"

Cale groaned and scrubbed at his eyes with the hem of his shirt. "…Stupid. Should've known. Would've been better off staying with Tek. 'S all your fault Korso."

"My name's Joseph, kid." He said in response, although it wasn't like Cale could hear him. "If you're gonna talk about the dead, you may as well use the right names."

"'Course, Akima isn't helping much. Thinks this whole memorial service thing is stupid. _"Shouldn't be wasting our time on a back-stabber, should be helping set up the… 'Colony bums', didn't you call them?"_ Doesn't understand… You were dad's… Friend… My friend… You saved me…"

Korso sighed and pushed himself off his tombstone. "Stupid kid," he muttered, crouching in front of Cale's bent form. "The girl's right, you know,"

Cale picked at the grass, and smiled softly. " 'Course, she's right. Should be helping set up the Bob for all its new occupants, or something. But… This is important to me."

Korso blinked in surprise. For a moment there it had seemed almost as if Cale _had_ heard him. He knew that was impossible, but it was nice feeling all the same. "Don't see why," He muttered, "it doesn't matter much to me, and I'm the one you're doing it for."

"Stupid. This is stupid. I'm wasting my time. I should go catch up with Akima and the others and help set up food and stuff…"

"Kid, look at me." Cale slowly looked up and looked through Korso towards the thick trees behind him and Korso found himself shocked again. Man, the not-suite conversation thing really was scaring him a little. "Yes, this is stupid. I appreciate the thought and all, but like I said, the girl is right. Go help 'em out. I'm gone and you've got a planet to run."

And with these words said he jerked forwards the few inches and brushed his lips over the boy's.

"You don't know how much I wanted to do that before. But you're so much like your father…" He stood and walked away, hands in his pockets, towards the black skeletal figure that had appeared on the edge of his sight.

JOSEPH KORSO?

"Who else?" He paused. "You're a good three days late."

I'M SORRY?

"Eh, it can't be helped. So, where to now?"

Death waved a hand and an expanse of desert appeared. Korso was rather unimpressed. "So it's true. How interesting. How far is it to the other side?"

THAT DEPENDS ON YOU. BUT YOU HAVE ALL THE TIME IN THE WORLD.

"All the time in the world, huh?" the edge of Korso's mouth lifted up in a near-smile at that. "Well, I should get started then."

--

As Korso and Death both vanished, Cale got to his own feet and touched his hand to his lips.

"I could've sworn… Nah." He ran his hand over the top of the gravestone and walked away, but paused at the top of the slope and raised a hand in farewell. "Goodbye, Korso."

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